$20m grant for more school teachers

An extra 300 teachers will be heading to regional and disadvantaged schools thanks to a $20 million grant in the federal government's mid-year budget update.

The money for Teach for Australia will let the non-profit group start recruiting teachers now to go into schools in 2018 and 2019.

The organisation recruits top university graduates and young professionals as school teachers, training them in a masters while they're in the classroom for a minimum of two years.

It actively targets people from science, technology, engineering and maths backgrounds in a bid to target declining student interest and achievement in these subjects.

"We're hopeful that one of the ways ... to escape from the very vicious cycle is to put highly trained and qualified STEM-background graduates and young professionals in schools to bring their enthusiasm and real-world experience to classrooms," founder Melodie Potts Rosevear told AAP.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the grant for more teachers was part of his government's focus on helping children get the best start in life.

"All the evidence tells us that it's the quality of the teacher and early intervention that matters," he said.

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"That's why we are focused on building better pathways for children no matter who they are or where they live."

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said there was growing evidence the Teach for Australia program was good for schools, with 90 per cent of principals saying that after two years, teachers who graduated from the program were more effective than others with the same amount of classroom experience.

"The TFA program focuses on teacher education and continuous improvement through high quality and intensive mentoring, classroom observation, feedback to improve teaching practice and ongoing professional development," he said.

These are key features of high-ranking school systems in places like Hong Kong, South Korea, Shanghai and Singapore.

The money included in Monday's mid-year economic and fiscal outlook adds to $56.85 million in government grants to Teach for Australia since 2008.